Sunderland photographic artist and activist, Jo Howell, tells us why community organisation and activism is still such a large part of the culture of the North East of England.

Taking stock of the current members of parliament you may notice that we have a few excellent MPs filling the benches from Sunderland. Our education secretary is from Houghton a tiny town on the outskirts of the City. These new young MPs are around my age and they will have cut their teeth on the 1984 to 1985 miners strike.

Sunderland is the place where the first strike action was taken. The word strike first appears in 1768 when groups of militant sailors were “striking” or removing the top sails from ships to render them immobile. The Keelmen who brought the coal off the ships were described by John Stevenson as being “among the first trade to be organised in a primitive form of trade union.”

Time went on and the people of Sunderland, Durham, Darlington and Northumberland found life hard and wages terribly unfair. They used unified action to great effect and in 1868 Durham Miners Association came into being. In 1915 the first union building was built. The work began on Redhills the “Pitman’s parliament” which provided a debate room for representatives from each colliery to debate workers rights.

Everything in the North East has been won through organised protest. This is proven by our 250 year tradition of calling out inequalities and demanding better. In 2024, we are proud to have a Labour government but they have the arduous task of walking back the damage that the Conservative government inflicted over their 14 years of tyranny. Patronising the people through irresponsible language and policies. Levelling up, austerity, the Northern Powerhouse, oven ready brexit and so on.

Then the Conservative government introduced a law against noisy protest.

This law has forced the hands of grassroots campaigners to think outside of the box. Our protest liberties and our actual voices have been subdued by a law created by feudalists.

As an activist and a disabled person the physical act of in-person protest can take its toll. However, the comments sections on social media have enabled a new form of positive political protest that is super accessible.

Using this technology to our advantage we have created a movement that cannot be ignored by the powers that be. It’s not trolling because it’s activism. Use the words and posts of the ‘oppressors’ against them. Maybe that’s too strong a word – erm…. the target of your argument.

Using social media like this really annoys MPs, executives and marketing managers alike.

Rather than holding up my cardboard sign and shouting ‘this is what democracy looks like’ we can slide into the comments with memes, photographs and hashtags. I try to do this in a positive way and use questions or links to evidence the things I may say in the comments, on my social media or on this blog.

It’s public. It’s hard for them to ignore. It is impossible for them to control. Like the unions of yesteryear this technique works best if there are a group of you tactically using social media to attempt to request some public accountability. This form of protest is the way forward in terms of efficiency and creating a wide audience for the amplification of the cause.

I also use clothing as a form of nonviolent protest. The clothes may say the things I can’t. There’s also no noise from either of these actions so it will keep us on the right side of that ‘no noisy protest law’.

Speaking of laws, when you engage in this form of protest it is important to avoid falling into the trap of defamation or harassment. Keep the posts informative and evidenced or present it as parody. Look for hypocrisy and capitalise on it.

Use art if you’re an artist. I love a good bit of protest art. Social commentary is part of culture and it is vitally important for us all to engage in it. It’s the gateway to learning to advocate for yourself and others.

Try not to engage in any of the -ism’s. Ever. Either online or in real life.

Remember that you are protesting an injustice or raising an issue. This is the moral high ground. To hold on to it you need to ensure that the intent is to effectively protest and raise awareness. Your actions should always be aligned with your words.

To protect yourself and others remember that what you write has no intonation. Maybe try adding a heart or smiley emoji even if it’s out of place just so it feels unthreatening. Ambiguity is your friend. 🤩

If you would like to know more about my activism pop over to Save the National Glass Centre blog and see this in action.